NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18235, 31 October 1922, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS.

The annual return made to the British Home Offico shows that during 1921 ir.e number of experiments on living animals with anaesthetics was 8165, while those performed without anaesthetics, such as inoculations and hypodermic injections, numbered 67,097, a total for the year of 75,262. Of the experiments performed with anaesthetics, 2053 were, simple inoculations into the skins of guinea pigs, which were anaesthetised to keep the animals motionless during the introduction of a minute quantity <>f the fluid to be tested for the purposes of standardisation. If pain is likely to continue after the effect of an anaesthetic has ceased, or if any serious injury has been inflicted on the animal it must be killed before it recovers from the influence of the anaesthetic, rhe experiments without anaesthetics are mostly inoculations, but some are feeding experiments, or the administration of various substances bv the mouth or by inhalation, or by external application, or the abstraction of blood by puncture or simple venesection. In no instance has a certificate dispensing with the use of anaesthetics been allowed for an experiment involving a serious operation. Operative procedures in experiments performed under this certificate, without anaesthetics, are only such as are attended bv no considerable, if appreciable pain. "The certificate is, in fact, not required to cover these proceedings, but to allow of the subsequent course of the experiment. The experiment lasts during the whole time- from the administration of the drug, or injection, until the animal recovers from the effects, if any, or dies, or is killed, a period possibly extending over several davs, or even weeks. The substance administered may give rise to poisoning, or set up a condition of disease, cither of which may lead to a fata termination. To administer to an animal such a poison as diphtheria toxin, for example, or to induce such a iisease as tuberculosis, although it may :iot be accompanied' by acute suffering, is held to be a proceeding " calculated to give pain, and therefore e-periments of the kind referred to come within the scope of the Act. The Act provides that, unless a special certificate bo obtained, the animal must be kept under an unaesthetic during the who'e of th* experiment. THE BICYCLE RETURNING. About 20 years ago middlo age found a new elixir "in the shape of the bicycle. In those days our roads were re-discovered by cheorful if elderly people who, in a literal sense, renewed their youth in a thousand pleasant places. Unhappily for this great movement, says the medical correspondent of the London Times, there followed it, hot-foot, the internal combustion'engine, and. middle age, donning once more the "robes of rest," abandoned activity for mere speed. But once more the bicycle is in evidence. The writer believes that the return to the bicycle is a deliberate step. Middle age has become —and none too soon—afraid of its motorcars. For motoring is a deceptive pursuit. It gives the impression of immense energy, of more than adequate exercise; it gives too, as a rule, a sharpness of appetite. Yet, ( all the time, the motorist has been sitting hunched up, with his musculature relaxed, his chest sunk down, and his senses strained. At the exact opposite extreme from this stands the bicycle. That machine offers the best of motoring—its Sense of movement and its opening of new worlds—with none of it 3 disadvantages. The exercise afforded is real exercise; the appetite created a true appetite; the fatigue induced a reliable index to effort accomplished. , Further, cycling is half walking in any but the flattest countries. That is a matter of great importance, because nature has Ordained that the finest exercise of all is that which she bestows. Walking is a balance action of all the muscles, and, perhaps, of all the organs. Thus the walk uphill, followed by the "spin" down and the pedalling on the flat, produce, in combination, a whole gymnasium of exercise. If we add the joy of the country taken in relatively small doses, the periods of rest, the incidents,! short tramps over rough ground, and tj«e change of diet occasioned by visits; to country inns or farms, we have composed a "cure" which is as perfect as it is complete. THE WORLD'S TRADE. Addressing the 48th annual convention of the American Bankers' Association, Mr. James S. Alexander, president of the National Bank of Commerce in New York, said:—"The time has passed when anyone looking to the future of the business of America can ignore the rest of the world. For many years before the war the whole trend of American business had been away from the development of a selfsufficient state. The developments of the war and the changed economic and financial status of other great industrial and capitalistic nations, have added tremendous impetus to a movement that has extended our lines of economic activity farther and farther into other countries. To my mind this movement has now been carried so far as to leave the importance of a -world-wide economic policy no longer a debatable question. On the one hand we find an abundance of evidence that very isubstantial improvement over the worst period of the depression has taken place at home. In addition to this we find to a degree that offers much basis for encouragement a readjustment in commercial and financial conditions in many other countries. On the other hand we find a condition of affairs in certain European countries that presents definite obstacles to anything like the full recovery of world trade. I believe there are open to American business men two courses. We may, within ourselves and by the help of what foreign trade must come to us in any circumstances, advance business development in this country and attain a moderate prosperity. The second course is a return to something approaching the old opportunities, the old rate of progress and a real prosperity. But to grasp the opportunities before us the rest of the world must be started upon a normal course. If we Americans are to take advantage of our new position in world affairs, and if we are to have conditions in which we can make the most of our new international capital position, it is essential that we play our part in the readjustment of world conditions. I believe that the outlook for American business, therefore, depends largely upon whethoc American business men are going to be contented in playing a relatively smaller role than before the war, to restrict their international economic, relations, and to accept within a restricted market modest profits, or whether they are going to broaden their views to the new vision that is demanded by present problems and opportunities, and to assume their part in the great work of readjustment that is yet to be don*.'- .